Thread: Carb recommendations?

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Wondering what people are having the best luck with these days. CFM and brand?

My combo is:

283 stroked to 313 with a 327 crank
6" rods, forged pistons
TrickFlow 175 heads
Cam should be in the .490-.500 lift, 205-215 dur @.050, 113LSA, probably very little if no overlap
Edelbrock Performer EPS
1-5/8 mid length headers
TH-350 with stock converter

Need a choke and vacuum secondaries.

Thanks,
-CF

After the confrontation we had on Hotrodders, you probably don't want to hear my recommendation.

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If you have the manifold, Edelbrock 1406 would be a good choice - 600cfm, electric choke and vacuum secondaries. If you have not yet purchased the manifold, I'd suggest a Performar Air Gap with a Quadrajet like this one - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-210216/overview/

I hope this thread gets a lot of responses - - - - the reason being that my Son just had a 2bbl Holley removed and replaced with a 4bbl Eldebrock on their '65 Mustang - - - the builder friend really ran Holleys down but then my Son's Nephew, who fancies himself a Car Guru, nearly choked when he learned of the swap ????????????? Is there really an Always or Never when it comes to Carbs???? no hi'jack intended, just wonde4ring?

This is one of those, “Have you stopped beating your wife?” questions – there’s no right answer. Over the past 45 years I have run a lot of different carburetors from Carter AFBs to Weber DCOEs on a wide variety of engines – mostly GMs but some Fords including 272, 312, 260 and 289 engines in my high school days. I have a lot of experience with Quadrajets and personally think they are one of the best “gas squirters” ever but recognize that they can be a bit tricky to work on and some folks just don’t like them. I really like the sound of the monster secondaries coming to life on a well-tuned car. Q-Jets (and my heavy right foot!) were responsible for a lot of my teenage tire purchases!

That said, I have done quite a few Edelbrock Performer/Performer RPM and 1406/1407 builds. The 1406 is a very easy to install and tune unit. They can run a bit rich out of the box but such can be addressed by following the incredibly detailed information in their manual that accompanies every purchase. Edelbrock has really written the book with replacement jets and metering rods as well as kits that are available at Summit or many local go-fast parts stores. I have purchased Edelbrock gasket kits at 9:00PM from a local shop.

There’s no argument that Holley makes a great carburetor and I know people who will not run anything but. The 4150 double pumper with mechanical secondaries is legendary and its little brother the 4160 is also a great unit for street machine as it only needs a single fuel input and comes with vacuum secondaries.

All carburetors are designed and intended to provide the ideal stoichiometric air to fuel ratio (AFR). The perfect stoichiometric AFR for gasoline is 14.7:1. Anything lower is considered rich and higher than 14.7:1 is lean. Several conditions affect this equation – most notable ambient temperature and elevation relative to sea level. As such, we tune for “best over-all” performance. Typically I tend to go a titch on the rich side which results in about 13:1 which seems to be a good balance for most normally aspirated gasoline engines. Lean can produce more power – but can also quickly give you problems in the heat department. Red hot exhaust manifolds or headers are not typically a good thing. We used to run two stroke racing bikes lean, but bear in mind there was oil suspended in the fuel and were prepared to swap top ends between races. I have an AFR measurement device from Innovative Motorsport that precisely measures AFR and EGT – but it’s expensive and not practical for most hot rodders.

Well – like I said – no easy answer. In the end you need to run what you like. A 600 CFM Holley 4160 would sure look right at home atop a 289 in a ’65 Mustang but there’s probably not a gnat’s eyebrow of difference in overall performance between the 4160 and an Edelbrock 1406.

Best,
Glenn

As always, well said Glenn!